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Shah joins 1,000 point club as Cal Poly knocks off Big West-leading Long Beach State

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Milestone game for Shah who leads Mustangs over The Beach

LONG BEACH, Calif. - It was a historic day for Cal Poly women's basketball senior guard Annika Shah as she scored a game-high 24 points to lead the Mustangs to a 78-71 win over first place Long Beach State and cross the 1,000 points scored milestone for her career.

Shah was a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line as part of her 24 points while also adding six rebounds. She became the 16th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points and the first to do it since 2018. Shah has now gone for over 20 points five times this season and ranks third in the Big West in scoring at 14.9 points per game.

Redshirt sophomore forward Sierra Lichtie had a sensational game as well, scoring 17 points on 70 percent shooting. She also grabbed six rebounds. Sophomore forward Mary Carter added 14 points and six rebounds while senior guard Sidney Richards chipped in 10 for the Mustangs (9-10, 4-5 Big West).

Cal Poly's defense was strong as they limited the Beach (11-7, 7-2 Big West) to 39 percent shooting from the field and 15 percent from three.

The Mustangs jumped out to a 10-4 lead to start the game. Long Beach State came back to tie it up at 12 with three minutes left in the opening quarter. Shah crossed the 1,000 career point mark as time expired in the first quarter as she hit a floater from above the free throw line to draw Cal Poly within one heading into the second.

Cal Poly scored the first eight points of the second quarter to take a seven point lead with just over five minutes to go before halftime. The Beach responded with a 9-2 run over a three minute span to regain a three point lead. However, the Mustangs closed the half with a 6-1 run to go into the half leading 33-31.

It was a back-and-forth third quarter with neither team able to pull gain a large lead. Cal Poly closed the third quarter with a 5-0 run the final minute to take a five point lead into the fourth.

Cal Poly took its largest lead of the game, 66-58, midway through the fourth quarter after going on a 7-2 run. Long Beach State got back within two, 72-70 with 24 seconds left. Shah then sank two free throws and then the Mustangs' defense forced a five second violation. From there, Cal Poly made its free throws to seal the victory.

The Mustangs will now get set to begin a stretch of playing four of their next five games at home. Next week, the Mustangs are home for a pair of games: Thursday at 6 p.m. against Cal State Bakersfield followed by Saturday at 2 p.m. against UC Riverside.

(Article courtesy of Cal Poly Athletics).

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Mike Klan

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